"current music climate"
the modern fan
business model
paradigm shift
at the end of the day

zbeast78

08-29-2014, 04:49 PM

poor billy just can't understand why he's not going platinum anymore.

"if i told them once i told them a thousand times.. smashing pumpkins first, and puppet show last!"

paranoid

08-29-2014, 04:57 PM

Biggest mistake he's made his entire career was reviving smashing pumpkins.

chrisothoulo

08-29-2014, 05:03 PM

I dont care if he plays under his own name ..he can play any song at his concert.. Fuck who cares what the name is.

Ol' Couch Ass

08-29-2014, 05:05 PM

I guess he just can't fight the good fight against the Britneys of the world anymore.

panda show

08-29-2014, 05:15 PM

Biggest mistake he's made his entire career was reviving smashing pumpkins.he kind of ruined whatever credibility the pumpkins had in the world of music. it's interesting though, because when you look at it now, it seems almost as the '88-'00 pumpkins were a completely different band than the billy corgan extravaganza we have today.

he can't face the fact that he just can't write good music anymore. or at least not the music he wrote 20+ years ago. the average rock fan knows him and the smashing pumpkins for siamese dream or mellon collie, not zeitgeist or teargarden or any other shit he's pulled off (or tried to pull off) in the past 7 years. he should be grateful for that and not fucking moan about 'kids these days' or whatever. he somehow made it this long using the smashing pumpkins brand while most of the other 90's alternative rock bands are gone, though some still play and look embarrassingly awful playing songs that remind them of the times when they didn't have grey hair, when they knew how to 'rock' and when they were young and popular.

Gooch

08-29-2014, 05:46 PM

oh no! it's the year 2000 all over again!

Forgotten Child

08-29-2014, 06:20 PM

full interview (Chicago Tribune)

Billy Corgan's booking this Saturday night at Ravinia somehow is both odd and logical.

The odd part is imagining the ferocious/sensitive '90s alternative-rock god howling, "Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage!" to a lawn full of chardonnay sippers. The logical part is that not only does the 47-year-old Smashing Pumpkins frontman live in Highland Park, but he operates a tea shop, Madame ZuZu's, less than a mile from the music venue, and he's playing an acoustic show for this hometown gig.

The reality is that almost nothing involving Corgan is simple, so this appearance has him pondering his "brand" and place in the modern rock world. Corgan, after all, is the only original member  or "survivor," as he puts it  of the Chicago-based quartet that articulated a generation's angst and aspirations on the multiplatinum albums "Siamese Dream" (1993) and double-disc "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (1995).
What followed was a series of band personnel changes and musical left turns  the introspective, electronic/acoustic "Adore" (1998), which is getting the deluxe reissue treatment in September; the dense, metallic concept album "Machina/The Machines of God" (2000)  that drained the Smashing Pumpkins' commercial mojo. The band broke up, Corgan released one album with his new band Zwan and another album under his own name, he reformed the Pumpkins with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin (who eventually left again) and has released two more Pumpkins albums plus other tracks under the umbrella "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope," with another full-length album, "Monuments to an Elegy," coming in December.

Yet despite of all this activity, Corgan is vexed that his image remains rooted in the past  something, it must be noted, is not true of, say, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam or Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters (and formerly Nirvana).

"If you said to me: 'List out the priorities that you face,' the number one problem for Smashing Pumpkins et al is that the general public does not see the band as a contemporary band," a T-shirted Corgan said over tea last week amid Madame Zuzu's vintage coziness. "Who's in the band, what the band does, what I say, what I do, what happened in the past, they're all like distant second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. My focus is, can I get an album out there that the general guy will go, 'I'll listen to that  and actually I want to go to a show and actually hear this material'?"

That's his aim with "Monuments," which he characterizes as a "pop" album and which features the drumming of Motley Crue's Tommy Lee. But in the meantime, he's grappling with the notion that his work as a songwriter  with the Pumpkins, with Zwan, as a solo artist  is not seen as part of one big continuum.

"I never, never, ever would have thought I would have been in these set of circumstances," Corgan said. "I never thought you could have the pedigree that I had through one particular period of my life, and then when I stepped out of it, it didn't follow me. Then I would be like: 'Do you realize I wrote all those songs?' ... I was like, OK, I'm a solo artist now, but somehow I don't get to take that cache with me."

Hence the trickiness of presenting and promoting Corgan's Ravinia show. The venue's calendar lists him as "BILLY CORGAN of the Smashing Pumpkins," and the description reads: "Don't miss this evening of Smashing Pumpkins music plus the music of Zwan and other solo endeavors."

"We actually talked about calling it Smashing Pumpkins Acoustic, because at the end of the day, and I've had to wrestle in different ways with the Ravinia people about this, they sit there, and they fret over the fact that punter No. 4 won't know that I'm the guy from the Smashing Pumpkins, so it's got to say 'Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins,'" Corgan said. "And people even were suggesting that I blog up the set list. They don't want me to blog up the set list hoping that I'll write about some obscure song I'm going to play. They want me to blog up the set list so that the punter will look and go, 'Oh, he's playing those songs.' I'm not stupid, you know."

Ravinia President/CEO Welz Kauffman said, "One of the questions we asked was, 'Will there be Pumpkins songs in the set list?' Social media is everything these days, and we get calls from people asking, 'What's he going to sing?'"

That said, Kauffman said he had been trying to get Corgan, with or without the Pumpkins, to play there since he arrived at Ravinia in 2000, "long before I ever knew that Billy was a Highland Park resident." Kauffman finally met Corgan a few years ago, and it took till this summer for the performer's schedule to sync up with Ravinia's.

Corgan said the concert represented a welcome break from work on "Monuments" and the "Adore" reissue for him and current Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who will join him on stage. "This is like the complete opposite of the studio experience, which we've been in for four or five months," Corgan said.

Kauffman said the acoustic performance was Corgan's idea. "I just wanted him in any way, shape or form we could possibly get him," the Ravinia president said. "He's a terrific artist and a serious artist and an entertaining guy, and I just love his music, so when we had an opportunity to make that booking happen, we jumped at it."

And although the Ravinia team made suggestions regarding how to present the music, Kauffman stressed that "it's really up to him to make those decisions. The last thing I wanted any artist to do, especially in their debut, is to feel like they've compromised something."

One promotional tie-in has given pairs of pavilion tickets to people who agree to foster a homeless pet through PAWS Chicago, a non-profit supported by Corgan.

Corgan played solo shows around the time of his 2005 solo album, "TheFutureEmbrace," but said the Ravinia concert will be his first major career-spanning effort. He said he has prepared a 2-hour-and-15-minute set of 27 songs, which, as he wrote on the Ravinia site, have been "broken into five small acts, with hopefully a different emotional result in each." The centerpiece will be a suite of nine songs written for the "Mellon Collie" album, including at least one that didn't make the final cut.

"It's intense," Corgan said. "It's a very personal journey. And then, of course, (I must) remember all of the lyrics. It's one thing to do songs that I've done through the years. It's another to play a song I've never played live and how am I going to do this without a cheat sheet."

As for what will distinguish this as a Billy Corgan show, as opposed to a Pumpkins show: "I think that if I play solo, it would be the more intimate reflection of the material that's not adherent to the need to hit everybody between the eyes with loud music  in essence the Smashing Pumpkin dynamic which goes quiet to loud, but it's all about setting up that big moment, those epic moments, which unfortunately really don't mean as much as they used to because it became widely imitated, not just from us obviously, a lot of other bands too."

At the same time, Corgan said he no longer draws distinctions between his Pumpkins work and anything else he does. "Honestly, to me it's all the same," he said.

Billy Corgan's wrestlers
So could "TheFutureEmbrace" have been called a Pumpkins album?

"Is 'Adore' a Pumpkins album?" he shot back.

I think of it as one.

"I don't."

And although Corgan has an artist's temperament with accompanying idiosyncrasies  he performed an eight-hour electronic interpretation of Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" at Madame ZuZu's in February, and he's also launched a professional wrestling league  he's no art-for-art's-sake kind of guy. He views music in terms of conquering.

Hence this reflection on the Pumpkins' triumphs: "How did we defeat what was the pop music at the time? We were more authentic. We were more visceral. We spoke to people more directly. We reached them in a fresh way that if you had any brain at all and you were cool and you were a kid, you went, 'This is cooler' or 'This is better than that.'"

And when he discusses his hopes for "Monuments," he's still thinking in those terms, even as he acknowledges that people don't engage with music the way they did 20 years ago. "I still think you can present people with very simple choices," he said. "So if pop music is king, you have to beat people at their own game. Because I'm not going to get the indie vote."

Besides, he's not all that impressed with the competition. "I see certain artists' work vaunted as if it's like the greatest thing you've ever heard on those web pages, and then I listen, and I don't hear it," he said. "You know, I don't hear (the Beatles') 'Sgt. Pepper.' I don't hear (the Beach Boys') 'Pet Sounds.' I don't even hear the best Ramones album."

So he's feeling at least that the years have been kind to his own work.

"I do see where generally speaking people are starting to recognize my songwriting, like that laurel is finally getting put on me," he said. "From my estimation (it's) about a decade too late, but I'm finally kind of getting that street-level respect that I didn't get, and maybe it's just because so many of my contemporaries really weren't good writers, and once their kind of gimmick wore off, you know they haven't produced a level of quality material, and then the newest generation's been covering a lot of my songs, so maybe that's kind of adding up."

At the same time, though, he's not seeking delayed gratification for his new music, saying, "I'm not willing to wait around 15 to 20 years to have somebody go, 'Hey, that album that you made is really good.' And then sell it to the 7,000 people that are still paying attention." So "Monuments to an Elegy" will be followed by another yet-to-be-recorded Pumpkins album, "Day for Night," and then he'll take stock.

"When this process is over, I'm either going to bail on this ship for good, like 'I'm done,' or I'm going to have a new ship to sail on," Corgan said, adding that at a time when everyone walks around looking at phones, he wonders: "How do you reach through the fog as an artist? How do you punch your way back through? How do you say, 'I still matter'? How do you say, 'How does one of my contemporaries get treated like a contemporary artist, and how do I get treated like I'm supposed to play "Siamese Dream" for the rest of my life?' At some point you've got to fight this fight or go away."

But first there's Ravinia, a place he envisioned playing the first time he ever visited.

"I always think that at whatever venue I'm in," Corgan said with a laugh, "because that's the dreamer in you. When I was a kid and I'd go to Riviera, I'd think, wow, if I could ever stand on that stage. Same with Metro. Same thing with the Vic. Same with the Aragon, you know?"

Now, he said, "I've stood on pretty much every famous stage in the world, which is pretty crazy." So Ravinia is one of his last frontiers.

"It'll probably be the last frontier considering the show I'm going to play," he deadpanned. "You'll be like, 'They started throwing bottles around ' Actually, it's Ravinia. They'd throw wine glasses. 'They started throwing wine glasses around song 11.'"

Trotskilicious

08-29-2014, 06:41 PM

poor billy just can't understand why he's not going platinum anymore.

"if i told them once i told them a thousand times.. smashing pumpkins first, and puppet show last!"

i wish he would stop giving a shit

MyKeyZ

08-29-2014, 07:25 PM

I hate when Billy starts getting into this "current music climate/modern day listener" crap...
He's always going on about how people aren't about albums anymore.
GIVE ME A BREAK!
Guess what? I like to sit back and listen to good albums.
Perhaps you're just not writing to your full potential, Mr. Corgan.
Oh wait, no, it's everyone else's fault... it's not artists fault at all.

The problem isn't about people not taking the time to sit back and listen to a full album all of the way through... the real problem is artists not making good enough albums that make you want to listen to all of the way through. If the music is good... is gripping... you will make that person have to sit back and experience the whole thing from start to finish. But when artists just really focus on creating a couple of singles to grab people's attention while the rest of the album is filler/crap... you get this new listener mentality.

Maybe Billy needs to stop focusing on these attention deficit disorder/non-music lovers to begin with and focus on delivering a goddamn great album from beginning to end.
Stop worrying about all that bullshyte.

The days of The Smashing Pumpkins have been long gone... since the Machina days.
Since then, it's just been The Billy Corgan Experience.

Elphenor

08-29-2014, 07:48 PM

There is for sure an increase in people who just listen to singles because people have access to so much now.

But it's like who cares? Make whatever you want Billy

MyKeyZ

08-29-2014, 07:52 PM

There is for sure an increase in people who just listen to singles because people have access to so much now.

But it's like who cares? Make whatever you want Billy

Exactly... I would think Billy is far beyond the point of having to give a shit about what's trending. If you're a trust artist just do your own thing man. Is he expecting some frigging monumental Kanye West/Maroon 5/Katie Perry success or something?

Sometimes I feel that Billy truly believe he is his own character Glass...
Delivering some higher power's message through music...
But no one is giving a shit lol

I hate singles... same crap being shoved down our throats over and over.
Usually by the time the album comes out, I'm skipping over the singles because I'm just sick of them and just want to get to the rest of the album.

MyKeyZ

08-29-2014, 08:04 PM

Another issue is that Billy hasn't written THAT great single that everyone loves.
Where was that single on Oceania? Was there even a music video to support any of the tracks off the last album?

Trotskilicious

08-29-2014, 08:23 PM

i know you guys like to talk about the particulars of why bill is upset with the modern listener but it is ultimately about the fact that he is no longer popular with the modern listener and can't figure out how to be

when really he should just say fuck it and do some acid

myosis

08-29-2014, 08:44 PM

trying too hard to figure it out, really... this is all bad news, folks.
seems that with this new album he's STILL trying to pander to his perception of what the general audience wants to hear.

MyKeyZ

08-29-2014, 09:14 PM

i know you guys like to talk about the particulars of why bill is upset with the modern listener but it is ultimately about the fact that he is no longer popular with the modern listener and can't figure out how to be

when really he should just say fuck it and do some acid

hahaha
+ 1,000 for troof

Trotskilicious

08-29-2014, 11:04 PM

trying too hard to figure it out, really... this is all bad news, folks.
seems that with this new album he's STILL trying to pander to his perception of what the general audience wants to hear.

Yea its a shame

Starla

08-29-2014, 11:31 PM

Pumpkins have been dead since 2000. It's the fans who cannot accept that.

vajohna

08-30-2014, 12:17 AM

It's not even worth it to click the link and read the interview anymore.

Funbags

08-30-2014, 12:23 AM

poor billy just can't understand why he's not going platinum anymore.

He complains about his "90s contemporaries not being treated like oldies acts"...

...when Trent Reznor and Dave Grohl are essentially making the same music they were in the 90s and getting $RICHBITCH$. They're contemporary because they never fucked with their formula in the first place.

Even when Reznor "broke up" NIN and "reinvented" himself on his latest album; SHIT SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME.

toase

08-30-2014, 12:27 AM

Biggest mistake he's made his entire career was reviving smashing pumpkins
.

Butt Pope

08-30-2014, 12:45 AM

He should stop giving the new albums and songs dumb titles.

"Teargarden by Kailiedescope"
"Zeitgeist"
"Oceania"

Turds. All of them.

MyKeyZ

08-30-2014, 01:09 AM

He hasn't had a great song since 1995. Adore was a good album, but no iconic song. He needs to just join someone elses band, like Guns n Roses and try being the sideman.

I absolutely adore "Adore," but I must agree that there really isn't an iconic song that defines its era. There's no anthem like "Today" or moment in time like "1979." But I still fucking love that album and is my favorite Pumpkins record.

panda show

08-30-2014, 01:45 AM

I think he still has a respectable fanbase or at least there are people out there who would buy his album if it was actually good.
of course that the modern teenager doesn't give a crap about him, but there are still people who like his past work, and I think no matter what, if he actually made a good album, those people would buy it.
the problem lies in the fact that he probably can't make an album like siamese dream anymore.. and he needs to acknowledge that.

cardiac

08-30-2014, 03:36 AM

He complains about his "90s contemporaries not being treated like oldies acts"...

...when Trent Reznor and Dave Grohl are essentially making the same music they were in the 90s and getting $RICHBITCH$. They're contemporary because they never fucked with their formula in the first place.

Even when Reznor "broke up" NIN and "reinvented" himself on his latest album; SHIT SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME.

One might argue that Trent's by far the biggest achiement in the last decade or so has fuck all to do with The Downward Spiral or whatever.

Yes, the inhabitants of netphoria are proof of that respectable fanbase.
:rofl:

Butt Pope

08-30-2014, 06:34 AM

He wants the attention, arenas, and adoration of 1996, but has no idea how to get there anymore. His prime has come and gone and that's not his fault, nor is their shame in it, but to think he's going to release an album to critical and popular acclaim and sell 4 million copies is a fantasy.

Btw, Dave grohl and trent reznor also peaked in the 90s despite what they've done since.

panda show

08-30-2014, 08:08 AM

Yes, the inhabitants of netphoria are proof of that respectable fanbase.
:rofl:I'm talking about the monte-like fans. the ones that you can see commenting on his facebook page, the ones that you can see in various facebook groups, that go to his teahouse, in other words; kiss his ass. also add all the people from the old o-board.

of course netphoria isn't the place where you find such fans.

Ram27

08-30-2014, 08:52 AM

he kind of ruined whatever credibility the pumpkins had in the world of music. it's interesting though, because when you look at it now, it seems almost as the '88-'00 pumpkins were a completely different band than the billy corgan extravaganza we have today.

he can't face the fact that he just can't write good music anymore. or at least not the music he wrote 20+ years ago. the average rock fan knows him and the smashing pumpkins for siamese dream or mellon collie, not zeitgeist or teargarden or any other shit he's pulled off (or tried to pull off) in the past 7 years. he should be grateful for that and not fucking moan about 'kids these days' or whatever. he somehow made it this long using the smashing pumpkins brand while most of the other 90's alternative rock bands are gone, though some still play and look embarrassingly awful playing songs that remind them of the times when they didn't have grey hair, when they knew how to 'rock' and when they were young and popular.

This is likely true. Or he can't sing it. Or get a drummer to play it.

He just keeps excusing it by saying that we should stop liking old stuff.

Fucking Corgan

Ram27

08-30-2014, 08:55 AM

He wants the attention, arenas, and adoration of 1996, but has no idea how to get there anymore. His prime has come and gone and that's not his fault, nor is their shame in it, but to think he's going to release an album to critical and popular acclaim and sell 4 million copies is a fantasy.

Btw, Dave grohl and trent reznor also peaked in the 90s despite what they've done since.

Btw Foo fighters are still going strong. Even though it all sounds 'the same'. At least Grohl can release an album without some big fucking motive behind it.

hnibos

08-30-2014, 09:32 AM

Only took 8 years :erm:

T&T

08-30-2014, 09:36 AM

One might argue that Trent's by far the biggest achiement in the last decade or so has fuck all to do with The Downward Spiral or whatever.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01836/nine-inch-nails_1836564i.jpg
this isn't a big achievement. This is just some suits giving him a stamp.

Cool As Ice Cream

08-30-2014, 09:41 AM

fucking end it already you fucken crybaby lets see how many people are going to read your stupid teacatwrestling blog then probably like one instead of twenty

and yes he said the same thing before oceania came out and then he wussed out by saying that people were talking about the album and that this was already more than he had hoped for

T&T

08-30-2014, 10:07 AM

i don't even care. it's kind of like a 'one liner' when he says that shit. he's like a fatty who can't control himself around a cake - crap just spills out of his mouth to get any attention possible.

Cool As Ice Cream

08-30-2014, 11:01 AM

true.

also, people who say "why smashing pumpkins, why is the name that important, who cares about the name" obviously care about the name. (as in, they don't want it to be called smashing pumpkins.)
if you claim not to care about the name, then the name smashing pumpkins shouldn't bother you either.

it's all about the music, man.
i wish it was.

bye june

08-30-2014, 11:23 AM

I think the answer to the questions he's asking is:

Don't give a fuck.

Why hasn't he put out ten awesome solo albums by now?
Why Isn't he making the music he truly wants to make?
He's too worried about bullshit that dosen't matter.
Just make good music and people will be happy!
:banging::banging::banging::banging::banging::bang ing::banging::banging:
:banging::banging::banging::banging::banging::bang ing::banging::banging:

Araneae

08-30-2014, 02:50 PM

Billy is his own worst enemy. It's amazing how he manages to ruin any sort of goodwill he builds with the fanbase whilst contradicting himself continuously, he had a string of decent interviews and now he spouts this garbage again. Maybe he needs to just go away already if he's just going to be like this.

And then saying shit like this doesn't help him any, especially since he himself hasn't released anything really amazing in almost 20 years. Billy also doesn't really listen to any post-2000 bands for anyone to even give a shit about his opinion on this. He just sounds like a crotchety old man.

Besides, he's not all that impressed with the competition. "I see certain artists' work vaunted as if it's like the greatest thing you've ever heard on those web pages, and then I listen, and I don't hear it," he said. "You know, I don't hear (the Beatles') 'Sgt. Pepper.' I don't hear (the Beach Boys') 'Pet Sounds.' I don't even hear the best Ramones album."

It seems most of what he has said in these past few interviews was a load of crap since he still has severe insecurity issues with himself and his place in music.

Whats Corgan so hung up about anyways? Oceania debuted at #5 on the charts. That's still pretty relevant considering he's the only original member.

coldestrose

08-31-2014, 12:32 AM

Obviously that's 4 spots too low for him

Gooch

08-31-2014, 02:45 AM

He's setting himself up for failure by trying too hard to please critics and pop culture. Fucking Willie Nelson is 80 and still tours and has a following and hasn't had a hit since On the Road Again, but he's going strong and is well respected. Why? Cuz he smokes pot and doesn't give a shit. LSD would work too, as mentioned.

Trotskilicious

08-31-2014, 02:54 AM

i dunno that willie actually does that many shows

Trotskilicious

08-31-2014, 02:55 AM

i think people like him because he's a sweet old man.

bill corgan can't ever to be that.

Funbags

08-31-2014, 03:29 AM

One might argue that Trent's by far the biggest achiement in the last decade or so has fuck all to do with The Downward Spiral or whatever.

whatever legacy the band had is long gone now. billy sings worse than eddie vedder when he does that thing with his jaw and goes wahhuhhhuhuhhhhh

people still listen to albums, they just dont buy them. welcome to 2014. stop bitching, billy.

amoergosum

08-31-2014, 11:02 AM

2014 >>>

http://i.giflike.com/jAJBDtb.gif

amoergosum

08-31-2014, 11:11 AM

Ed still sounds great >>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZwUg08DI4#t=1m14s

coldestrose

08-31-2014, 11:19 AM

Agreed.

Plus, people like Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl don't go around complaining and comparing themselves to artists who are doing better than them. They just keep making their music and going out and rocking it. Maybe if Billy did the same he would have more success these days.

myosis

08-31-2014, 11:36 AM

artists who have revolutionized rock'n'roll (or at least made a big impact on it) all did so during their 20's. Mr. Corgan is part of the select few, and yet he won't be content of this accomplishment.

Modern90's

09-05-2014, 04:01 PM

Corgan needs to stop worrying of the album is "going to sell" to go and say it you're best album ever like he did with Oceania. Don't worry about " the modern consumer or any of that shit. Make music and have fun doing it corgan

Corgan needs to stop worrying of the album is "going to sell" to go and say it you're best album ever like he did with Oceania. Don't worry about " the modern consumer or any of that shit. Make music and have fun doing it corgan

I'm pretty sure this is what has been suggested since like, 2007.

Ram27

09-05-2014, 10:43 PM

^ plus

http://i.imgur.com/fCFKh51.png

null123

09-05-2014, 10:59 PM

Billy has said multiple times that he basically hates the contemporary music landscape so I'm not sure why he's expecting his own work to be popular when the public's tastes are so at adds with his own.

If he really wants to make a "popular" album, like make it onto Pitchfork or Noisey or whatever even though he pretends he doesn't want that, he's gonna have to find something in the current scene that resonates and focus on making music that has some congruency.

bs1933

09-06-2014, 12:11 AM

Seeing as how there is like a running list of failed projects / broken promises. There should be a running list of all the times that Billy has said the band didn't fit in and wasn't appreciated. That has been their thing from the beginning. Oh we used to beg our family members to come to the show so that the venue wouldn't be empty. Oh Cherub Rock was a reaction against how people perceived us in the music scene. Oh Adore was ahead of it's time.

Isn't that his thing? Like, no one likes us - fuck all you guys? The times that he has most been like -honestly fuck you guys I'll do my thing - he has created some great things. I think he's trying to ride the wave of what the band was. I think the Ravinia show was really interesting and a throwback to things like the pajama opener sets, the viper room show, the hideout shows and of course the chicago songs. And not everyone liked all of them but the residency songs. Keep it simple. I think he does well when things are stripped down. Adore sort of did that, but take it all the way. The old model doesn't fit him anymore. I think he's unwilling to let the band/himself evolve in a totally different way.

Gooch

09-09-2014, 03:16 PM

On the music news portion of a local radio AM show, they mentioned the article about BC wanting to end SP if the new album doesnt sell well. The DJ replied, "Well, just write better songs like you used to do, and it will sell..."

The Omega Concern

09-10-2014, 12:10 AM

Biggest mistake he's made his entire career was reviving smashing pumpkins.

His solo effort was impressive overall and I don't fully understand how a guy like him seemingly lacked/lacks the confidence to continue in that direction for at least one more effort.

The Omega Concern

09-10-2014, 12:22 AM

Billy has said multiple times that he basically hates the contemporary music landscape so I'm not sure why he's expecting his own work to be popular when the public's tastes are so at adds with his own.

If he really wants to make a "popular" album, like make it onto Pitchfork or Noisey or whatever even though he pretends he doesn't want that, he's gonna have to find something in the current scene that resonates and focus on making music that has some congruency.

not really. the Band just isn't that interesting anymore as a whole. Bandmates matter if you're in a band. Some of his solo stuff is more congruent with today's sound and he didn't need anybody else for that. He should seriously consider that or join/create some Traveling Wilbury type project with some other artist of equal gravitas.

No one in his band resonates with an energy that elevates his...its nice he's friends with Jeff but there's little chemistry between them that translates on stage in an interesting or entertaining way. Guitar chops and wankery are base level requisites for a band, and even with that, their dynamic falls flat. period.

go solo.

dreams of glass

09-10-2014, 12:44 AM

sigh

He should just retire the SP brand, and make solo albums, in which he could feature famous musicians, or unknowns, or whoever. but not in an overly gimmicky way. And he could just have whoever he wanted record and tour with him, and we all could decide if we give a fuck. Just focus on the songwriting, and who cares who's in the band, because no one cares anyway.

That's the problem, Billy. You're asking us to give a shit about the new faces, when you clearly can't keep employees for very long,and they're just going to disappear anyway.. When Jeff finally gets fired or leaves, (and it will happen,) he'll throw in the towel. But if he's already threatening to do it, then do it already, don't prolong the inevitable.

Araneae

09-10-2014, 12:49 AM

It seems like the Ravinia thing renewed his interest in staying solo...but who knows how long that will last.

Elijah Moon

09-10-2014, 08:16 AM

I'm sick of Billy pondering his Pumpkins.

Ram27

09-10-2014, 09:07 AM

His solo effort was impressive overall and I don't fully understand how a guy like him seemingly lacked/lacks the confidence to continue in that direction for at least one more effort.

Because some guy on the internet didn't like it

duh

bye june

09-10-2014, 12:11 PM

He should keep The Smashing Pumpkins name but play with guest musicians that can play their instruments well. Also write good songs.

toase

09-10-2014, 12:21 PM

He should stop singing
No more lame lyrics
No more lame vocal mixes
Just guitar drums and bass

It could be a good thing if the band was put on ice for 4-5 years then a proper reunion attempted with actual band members instead of randoms who won an audition and have other ideas about what they want to do. Billy, Jimmy, Melissa and Jeff could work. All might be in a place where they want to play again by then as well.

I'm happy to keep listening to the experimental Billy+no-one else project, but I won't be shattered if it doesn't work out. Have some time off, re-group, figure out a new direction after that.